Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been named to the “Honor Roll” of the nation’s top hospitals by U.S. News and World Report in their 2018-2019 ranking of ‘America’s Best Hospitals.’ VUMC is one of only 20 hospitals nationwide to earn this distinction.

In addition to ‘Honor Roll’ status, 10 of VUMC’s specialty programs are nationally ranked, with three specialties – gynecology, nephrology and urology – rated in the Top 10 among peers.

To arrive at these rankings, U.S. News used methodology based largely on objective measures such as risk-adjusted survival and readmission rates, volume, patient experience, patient safety and quality of nursing, among other care-related indicators.

VUMC is nationally ranked in 10 specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, ear, nose and throat, gastroenterology and GI surgery, gynecology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopaedics, pulmonology and urology.

VUMC also is recognized as nationally high-performing in eight procedures and conditions: abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, aortic valve surgery, colon cancer surgery, congestive heart failure, heart bypass surgery, hip replacement, knee replacement and lung cancer surgery

U.S. News evaluated 4,656 hospitals to determine this year’s rankings. Initial eligibility to be ranked requires that a hospital must be a teaching hospital, or affiliated with a medical school, or have at least 200 beds, or at least 100 beds and offer access to certain medical technologies.

Construction begins on Gulch Union

Gulch Union, a three-phase mixed-use development between 12th and 13th avenues and McGavock & Demonbreun streets, is now under construction.

Endeavor Real Estate Group and its joint venture partner Granite Properties recently closed on the 2.75-acre city block in The Gulch.

“The Turner Family has done a phenomenal job creating The Gulch, which has evolved into a world-class urban mixed-use neighborhood,” says Jamil Alam, managing principal of Endeavor. “With Gulch Union, we intend to expand and improve upon the tremendous momentum within the amenity rich, sustainable and walkable Gulch neighborhood.”

Gulch Union’s first phase is construction of 1222 Demonbreun, a 20-story, 330,000 SF Class-AA office building, including 6,000 square feet of retail, that will cater to the modern workforce with high-end amenities and walkable city conveniences. Encompassing a full city block, between 12th and 13th Avenues and McGavock & Demonbreun Streets, Gulch Union will serve to unite The Gulch with Broadway and Music Row.

“1222 Demonbreun will offer a Class-AA office alternative that is walkable to all the entertainment options in downtown while delivering tremendous views and visibility and allowing for quick access to and from the key traffic arterials,” Alam adds.

Endeavor and Granite are developing the 1222 Demonbreun office project on a speculative basis, and the office building will be ready for tenants to start tenant improvements February 2020 for June 2020 occupancy.

Upcoming key dates:

-- August 2018: demolition of existing buildings

-- September 2018: excavation of site

-- December 2018: start of vertical construction

-- February 2020: tenant improvements

-- June 2020: tenant occupancy

Turner Construction is acting as general contractor. Future phases will include retail, luxury residential and a hotel.

Applied launches Learning Management System

Nashville-based Applied Health Analytics, LLC, providing analytics, technology and services to health systems, has released its Learning Management System.

LMS stores, distributes, tracks and provides incentive for the viewing of video content, and it consolidates multiple technologies and interfaces employed by health systems to engage their employees, and local employers and their workforce in the use of online learning modules.

“LMS allows our channel partners to coalesce the multiple workflows and technology they currently use to track and measure program engagement, to offer gamification and to provide educational content,” says Bill Van De Griek, senior vice president, product strategy and training.

“Storing video, targeting based on risk-factors, interest and employment requirements, and distributing content is now also in one application, lessening and making more efficient, the time spent administrating health and compliance programs. The objective is to make technology work for our health system clients, not the other way around.”

Frist announces Parisian exhibit

The Frist Art Museum will present Paris 1900: City of Entertainment in the Ingram Gallery from October 12 through January 6, 2019.

Organized by the Petit Palais Museum of Fine Arts in Paris with additional loans from other Parisian museums, the exhibition highlights the splendor of the French capital at the turn of the twentieth century, when millions visited the site of the International Exposition.

The Frist is the first of three venues in the United States to present exhibition that was originally on view at the Petit Palais in 2014.

Over 250 objects, including paintings, sculptures, decorative art, costumes and fashion accessories, posters, photographs and more, will be on display. Major artists represented in the exhibition include Pierre Bonnard, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as many others working across multiple mediums.

The exhibition also tells the story of a vibrant and swiftly changing city. “It is fitting that Nashville is the first stop of this exhibition’s tour,” says Frist Art Museum curator Katie Delmez.

LP reports strong second quarter results

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, based in Nashville, has reported its second quarter results for 2018, its best second quarter since 2004.

“Our strong results this quarter demonstrate clear progress against our strategy to transform Louisiana-Pacific into a leading building solutions company,” says Brad Southern, LP chief executive officer.

“In fact, this was the best second quarter for LP since 2004, driven by steady execution from our team across the business, strength in OSB (oriented strand board) pricing as well as ongoing growth in our value–added products.

“Each business – siding, OSB, engineered wood and South America operations – delivered increased top and bottom line results on a year-over-year basis. We remain focused on executing on our key growth initiatives and delivering increased value to shareholders, including capital returns in the form of a new $150 million share repurchase authorization.”

Trillant Health adds $12M in financing

Trilliant Health, a Brentwood-based analytics company for healthcare providers, has announced it has completed Series A financing of over $12 million, consisting of more than $7 million of new equity capital.

The financing is led by Noro-Moseley Partners, with participation from existing investors Martin Ventures, Nashville Capital Network and NueCura Partners.

Trilliant will use the funding to continue building its data science and technology teams to enhance the capabilities of its analytics platform.

The Trilliant analytics platform uses advanced data science to combine claims data, household data and user-generated data from digital marketing campaigns to support healthcare systems around strategy, site selection, M&A, payer negotiations, physician relationship management, marketing and employer relationship management.

The company works with over 60 healthcare systems nationwide.

NASBA releases its accountancy publications

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, headquartered in Nashville, announces the release of “Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination – Jurisdiction Edition, 2017,’’ and “Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination – University Edition, 2017.’’

Both publications feature comprehensive, statistical data from all testing windows (AUD, BEC, FAR, REG) of the 2017 Uniform CPA Examination.

Additional features include performance metrics by cohort for each of the 18 content areas, plus simulations and written communication. Section descriptions are also included to explain each view of the performance metrics.

Asurion survey: US addicted to phones

Asurion, a technology solutions services company headquartered in Nashville, has released the results of its 2018 Consumer Tech Dependency Survey.

The survey reveals Americans’ reliance on their mobile phones is steadily growing and not showing any signs of slowing down.

Asurion conducted the nationwide survey among a cross section of more than 1,000 adults, ages 18-65. It found:

-- 97 percent think Americans are addicted to their devices but only 59 percent think they themselves are;

-- Seven in 10 report having their phone within reach while sleeping. This number goes up to nearly 9 in 10 (88 percent) when looking at Millennials, dropping to 76 percent for Gen Xers and 48 percent for Baby Boomers.

-- When asked how long they could live without certain items, most respondents assigned the same length of time to their mobile phones as food and water. Across generational lines, respondents said one day is the longest they’d go without either of these “must-haves.”